elisabeth,

I think I may have confused you when I wrote about a lack of sportsmanship.

I did understand the sportsmen reference as a contrast to non-sport fishing, if not to commercial fishing. (The though of this being a commercial catch conjures up a whole other world of strange possibilities for the over-active imagination.) When I referred to lack of sportsmanship I meant the same thing, really. I did not mean it as "bad sport" kind of sportsmanship. Sport fisherman fish for fun and give the the fish a fighting chance I suppose, but this fisherman is mainly intent on landing the fish. He didn't want to play. He just wanted the fish. He didn't use dynamite, but he wasn't planning to catch and release, either. So I think I understood and that line works as written.